WARREN — Trumbull County commissioners voted down Wednesday an effort by the county sheriff’s office to obtain an additional $2.2 million to fund payroll through the end of the year after county Auditor Martha Yoder and her assistant, Christy Sostaric, said the amount requested is more than what is needed.

Yoder and Sostaric said based on their estimates the department needs $1.6 million to complete its payroll obligations through the remainder of 2024. The auditor said sheriff’s office officials did not take advice from her office in preparing the budget request.

“This is not the way we normally do budget transfers,” Sostaric said.

Yoder noted if the sheriff’s office would have worked with her office, they would have been able to figure out what is actually needed. She said the original request for the 2024 budget was $19.9 million, which would have been 29.11% of the county’s total general fund budget.

“We got them down to $17.2 million, which is still 26.87% of the general fund budget for 2024,” she said. “Their actual budget in 2023 was $16 million. They wanted to go from $16 million to $19.9 million.”

Yoder believes what is being requested is unreasonable and not right.

“We believe $1.6 million is more than what they need,” she said.

Sostaric notes the sheriff’s office is asking for $1.7 million for salaries alone, but the auditor’s office calculates they need about $900,000.

“We are not arguing the $389,000 retroactive,” she said. “They provided the documentation.”

For longevity, they requested $59,000. However, it was recently posted at $68,590, including the jail.

Sostaric said they included the over budget of the jail’s hospitalization costs.

“We only looked at the payroll, since that is what they requested,” Yoder said.

Commissioner Niki Frenchko questioned whether the sheriff’s office will have enough to make its next payroll if the commissioners did not vote.

Sostaric insisted there is enough money in the sheriff’s office account to provide the next pay.

“We are willing to work with them,” Yoder said.

The commissioners also voted against providing $16,375 to the sheriff’s office to cover a commissioner-approved uniform allowance that was in the most recent contract negotiation.

Although there was no official from the sheriff’s office at the meeting, Commissioner Denny Malloy requested a member of the division reach out to the auditor’s office to establish a budget that could pass.

Mike Wilson will be the new sheriff after he defeated incumbent Paul Monroe in the Nov. 5 election in what was a clean sweep by the GOP for countywide offices.